JNU teachers say extra classes on Saturdays, shorter winter vacation is "simply unacceptable"

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) issued a statement today, Tuesday, July 17 criticising the suggestion of a senior faculty member to schedule extra classes on Saturdays and shorten the winter vacations to compensate for the time lost due to the delay in the release of the results of Common University Entrance Examination for Undergraduates (CUET UG). 

To recall, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting a retest for as many as 1,000 students who raised concerns about several errors in the provisional answer key and further submitted their grievances. The re-test is scheduled to be held on July 19 and today, July 17, the admit cards were announced. 

Stating that the varsity's plan to hold extra classes on weekends is simply unacceptable, the JNUTA's statement read, "The inefficiency of NTA that has led to delays in admissions has led to curtailing of both semester time and vacation time. This leads to not only loss of research and writing time for teachers but also adversely affects students as they are being subjected to fulfilling criterion for their respective degrees in shortened semesters violating the UGC guidelines on what should be the duration of the semester."

"Thus the UGC and the JNU administration together are not only violating UGC regulations on teaching and learning standards but also infringing on the basic rights of both students and teachers," the statement issued by the JNUTA's Secretary Syed Akhtar Husain added. 

Further, JNUTA claims that they are yet to receive the compensatory earned leave (EL) that has been given to faculty in other universities for working during COVID and forgoing vacations. "Compensatory EL is a statutory provision and JNU is blatantly violating this provision," the statement read, adding that efforts made to discuss the matter were not fruitful. 

Further, the association points out the financial burden they bore during COVID-19 times due to online classes. It also highlighted that they faced a huge deduction in their salary for the month of June 2024, citing a demand for the return of transport allowance paid during COVID.  

Asking the JNU administration to stop stealing the labour and salary of faculty members, it demanded: 

1. Either return the deducted transport allowance or compensate all faculty members for all costs incurred to perform academic duties online 

2. Credit compensatory EL to every faculty member for all breaks and vacations that were forgone since 2019-20

3. Stop any further disruption of the academic calendar by conducting its own entrance examination for undergraduate (UG), masters and PhD admissions as per its own statutes and the mandate of the JNU Act instead of relying on examinations conducted by the compromised, inefficient and intransparent NTA

"JNUTA reiterates that under no circumstances will the association allow the burden caused due to the inefficiencies and violations of the NTA to fall upon faculty members in JNU," the statement concluded.